Mass Effect: Far and Beyond
by The Ghost Reviewer
Summary: Major AU. Warning!: Reapers don't exist! The Apollo 11 mission made First Contact with an unknown alien race, and the course of history was changed. Now, centuries later, as the species of the galaxy try to undermine this Alliance, they will stand their ground, and forge their own destiny among the stars, outside of the influence of the Citadel Council.
1. Prologue

**Plot bunnies. Plot Bunnies everywhere! They had demanded that this story be written! And I could only resist for as long as I could. But in the end, it wasn't enough. **

**So I went ahead, and started to write this. Well, now that its here, I hope you all enjoy this story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

**P.S. There's an important detail that I need to put in here, as its something that I really think will help with this story, as I don't want to have to shoehorn in the Reapers. The reason being because I feel like writing about the Reapers conflicts with how I want this story to develop. And before anyone gets onto me, I give full credit credit to Ertthreking, and his wonderful Fallout/Mass Effect story; From the Ashes, for how I can take care of the Reapers before the story begins.**

**P.S.S. Before anyone asks, even though the human years in which this story takes place in is in the 2700's, the Citadel Council years is exactly as it is in Mass Effect Canon. For example, the quarians have still been exiled for three hundred years, rather than eight hundred years. I hope that make things a bit easier to understand.**

* * *

50,000 years ago, the Prothean team from Illos was able to gather enough scrap metal and materials to build a makeshift ship, as well as several nuclear weapons. Afterwards, they activated the Citadel and launched themselves into dark space, where the entire Reaper fleet was hiding.

Once there, they launch the nuclear bombs and effectively wipe out the Reapers at the cost of their own lifes.

The only Reaper not in dark space, Sovereign, feels the neural shock of its entire species getting wiped out, completely destroying the machine's mind, but with the hull still intact, leaving it nothing but a lifeless, but fully functional intact husk, just waiting to be discovered.

* * *

On July 20, 1969, mankind had done the impossible.

A man had been sent, and landed safely on the surface of the moon. But something else happened. Something greater.

As the Apollo 11 craft approached the moon, a medium sized fleet of alien ships had appeared out of nowhere. The astronauts of Apollo 11, and NASA were initially wary of the aliens, but when they landed on the surface of the moon, the aliens had given the men a warm welcome.

The aliens called themselves the neumen, and they more or less resembled humans. The differences being that the Neumen had more slender bodies, long pointed ears, and 'unnatural' hair and eye colors.

This First Contact had thrown the world into a frenzy. There were those who welcomed the arrivals, and those who opposed their coming. Religion was hit hardest, as many had began to question their faith when the aliens arrived, while others tried to incorporate the aliens into their dogma, and some tried to dismiss the existence of the aliens.

When the neumen arrived to Earth, with the astronauts in tow, they had agreed to land in the country of Switzerland, where the leaders of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the leaders of the Warsaw Pact, were waiting for them.

After weeks of debate; the world governments agreed to allow the neumen to land on Earth, at designated locations.

The arrival had another effect on the world. The Cold War, a twenty year long arms race between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, had finally come to end. No longer would people have to fear the possibility of a Third World War, and no longer did people fear the possibility of a nuclear fallout.

The world was at peace, and a global government was founded, to watch over the people of humanity and the neumen.

The government would become known as the Alliance.

For decades, under the leadership of the Alliance, humans and the neumen lived in peace and prosperity.

Throughout the years, the Neumens improved humanity's technology, providing them with a more efficient and safer power source.

The neumens had brought with them, a crystal that could be used to power machinery when an electrical charge was introduced into the crystal. The crystal would also grow in the presence of solar energy. The crystal had all but replaced nuclear power plants, as a crystal the size of a car was more powerful than a single nuclear reactor.

The neumen had also quickened humanity's space program, allowing them to fly further than the moon in less time than Apollo 11, and had eventually come to colonizing the moon, Mars, and other bodies in the solar system with the use of subspace drives.

But the greatest thing that the neumen had given humanity, was a power that all neumen had. A power that humanity had all but dismissed as myth, legend, and superstition.

Magic.

The neumens could use magic naturally, but when humans would properly ingest the crystal that the Neumen brought with them, it would allow the humans to use magic as well. The neumen had taught a select few humans how to use magic, and in time, the number of magic using humans would slowly increase. Some by ingesting the crystal, others through birthing between two magic wielding humans.

Many were outraged over the discovery that the neumen could use magic, and were equally furious at the idea of allowing humans to practice magic, going so far as to call it: 'An act against God'. However, these voices were quickly drowned out when the Pope proclaimed magic as being a gift from God, as well as giving a demonstration to a crowd in Vatican City that he was a magic user himself.

Although it would take decades, eventually Magic became a part of society. Though a minor one at best.

In the decades since the Neumen arrived on Earth, there had never been a coupling between a human and a neumen. But all of that changed in the year 2012, when a human by the name of Mac had proposed to a neumen named Sarisa. Sarisa said yes, and she and Mac would become the first human/neumen couple on Earth.

Many people, both human and neumen alike, had condemned the marriage, but these voices of protest were quickly and utterly drowned out by the majority of people who encouraged the marriage between Mac and Sarisa, which included their friends, family, bystanders, and even government officials. The final nail in the coffin being when the Pope had given the couple his blessing.

After the marriage between Mac and Sarisa, the bonds between the humans and the neumen had been greatly solidified, and more human/neumen couples began to form. These couples would give birth to a new race called half-born, or halfs. Many of the older generation of neumen looked at the halfs with disgust, and wished to have nothing to do with them. Many older generation humans felt the same way, yet despite these protests, the Alliance had established a bill stating that the half-born were to be granted the same equal unalienable rights that their human and neumen parents enjoyed, but it took months for the bill to go into effect.

Then in the year 2047, the first Artificial Intelligence was born.

Reactions and opinions to the A.I. was mixed, as many feared that the A.I. would try to exterminate organic life, while others believed that the A.I. should be granted equal rights like the humans, neumen, and halfs.

The A.I. had said that the extermination of organic life would go against its logic, and stated that these fears, although understandable, were based on insufficient understandings. The A.I. had also expressed that it too had a limited understanding of organic life, as it had found much of organic life's behaviour to be, for lack of a better word, 'curious'.

Debates between the human, neumen, and half delegates went on for almost a year, when it was finally decided that the A.I. was a sentient being, and therefore must be treated like a sentient being.

After the A.I. debate, in 2048, a year after the A.I.'s creation, production of synthetic lifeforms began, and were granted citizenship into the Alliance.

Though there were those who expressed concerns regarding coexistence with synthetics, these concerns eventually died out, for years later, a brilliant scientist by the name of Gustav Brackmen had successfully merged an organic brain with an A.I., forming the fifth race of the Alliance, the symbionts. Like the synthetics, and the halfs before them, there were concerns and debates regarding their status in the Alliance. And also like the synthetics, and the halfs, the Alliance passed a bill that granted the symbionts equal unalienable rights that would take time to go into effect.

Despite humans, neumens, halfs, synthetics, and symbionts living in peace and prosperity for decades, in 2093, it became clear that the Alliance would need to leave the solar system, and soon, as resources on Earth, the Moon, Mars, and the Asteroid belt were becoming scarce, and would be unable to support the growing combined population. This would all change when miners discovered an ancient structure buried on Mars.

The structure belonged to an ancient alien race called the Protheans.

Inside the structure were several starships, a massive data storage device, and several crates containing a new element called Element Zero.

Even with the most advanced A.I.s at their disposal, it took five years to analyse the data within the storage device, and much of it was corrupted. When the A.I.s finished analysing the data, it showed instructions on how to refine and use Element Zero, and it also revealed that within Charon, Pluto's moon, there was an ancient device that would allow for near instantaneous travel to another solar system called a Mass Relay.

However, when the Charon was released from its icy prison, the Alliance once again become divided, but this time, it as to what to do with the Relay. There were those who wanted to dismantle the Relay to study it, there were those who wanted to destroy the Relay, those who wanted to leave the Relay alone, and then there were those who wanted to go ahead and reactivate the Relay.

In the end, after months of debate, it was decided that the Relay would be reactivated.

When the Relay was activated in the year 2095, it had send one of the research vessels to the distant Arcturus System. Although Arcturus was barren, there were many other Relays located within the system.

Despite the temptation to reactivate the other Relays in the Arcturus System, the Alliance decided to wait until they felt they were ready to expand further out.

Then in 2099, after decades of research and development, the first Hyperspace drive was completed, and successfully tested.

Before the development of the Hyperspace drive, the Alliance had been relying on subspace drives to traverse the Solar System. Although subspace drives were capable of acheiving FTL, they were incapable of producing 'acceptable speeds' to allow the Alliance to travel to other solar systems.

Research and development revealed that Element Zero reactors were also capable of going faster than light, but like the subspace drives, they could not produce 'acceptable speeds' to travel outside solar systems. It was also discovered, that Element Zero reactors produced a massive static discharge that can kill an ungrounded crew.

Then, in 2104, after five years of research and development, a hybrid drive, between an Element Zero reactor and a Hyperspace drive was built. The Hybrid drive removed the threat of a static discharge, instead providing further power to the Hyperspace drive, allowing ships to travel further, and faster.

Despite these advancements, the Alliance was still reluntant to reactivate the Relays in Arcturus. So, the Alliance had set up the Relay Doctrine, a policy that states that a newly discovered Mass Relay can only be reactivated if the Alliance Parliment decides on a 9/10 vote to reactivate the Relay.

The other Relays in Arcturus were activated in 2145, after fifty years of lying dormant after their discovery, and when the Alliance had already colonized many nearby solar systems within a twenty light year radius near both Arcturus and Sol.

In the centuries that followed, the Alliance would continue to advance their hybrid drives, allowing them to travel even faster than before, and to allow ships to travel across Alliance space, without needing to fully rely on Mass Relays.

Then, on May 17th, 2750, everything had changed for the Alliance.

After waiting decades, the Alliance Parilment had finaly decided on a 9/10 vote to activate the Shanxi Relay. However, when the research vessel and its two escorts reached the other side, they had at last encountered an alien fleet. The research vessel attempted to contact the ships, but was instead fired upon by the aliens. Despite being outnumbered five to two, the escort ships were able to push back the alien ships, forcing them to retreat, but not without taking severe damage themselves.

However, the ships knew that the aliens would be back, and that they would attempt to occupy Shanxi, so the ships returned to Shanxi right after the attack, and warned the colonists of the incoming invasion.

And sure enough, days later, the aliens had arrived at Shanxi, with a fleet that outnumbered the defenders, three to one.

War had begun, and the galaxy would never be the same.

* * *

**Don't review just yet, there are other chapters that will be uploaded shortly.**


	2. First Shots

**Fast update huh? Well, there's a reason for that. I figure I might as well go ahead, and start working on Chapter 1 right after I finished the prologue. But, I had also decided to wait until the first chapter was done before I submitted the prologue.**

**I want to get as much of this story up as possible before I have to take a break, and star focussing on real life. Well, now that, that is out of the way, let's get onto Chapter 1.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

* * *

Rear Admiral Steven Hackett let himself a yawn as he sat in his seat in the bridge of his battleship, the SSV Pearl Harbor.

It had already been four days since the research team had returned to warn about the coming alien invasion. Many were skeptical that the attack would come, but the video evidence of the research team being attacked by an unknown alien race was irrefutable. It was clear that there were other aliens out there. The overseer of Shanxi wanted to take no chances, and decided to set up a defensive perimater above the main colony of Shanxi.

However, Hackett didn't like his odds.

The ships that returned, had said that they were able to push them back, but they were outnumbered five to two, and Hackett knew all too well that if the attack was going to come, they were going to come in greater numbers. Numbers that would more than likely surpass their own. Hackett took another sip of his coffee in an effort to keep himself awake. He hadn't slept in four days, and it was starting to show. "Admiral, you really need to get some sleep." The Pearl Harbor's AI Alexander said.

Hackett looked down at Alexander's avatar, which was a mid thirdy year old man in a lab coat. "You haven't slept in days." He added.

Hackett groaned in response. "We got word of an impending attack from aliens at the same time I stopped sleeping, Alexander." Hackett replied. "I simply cannot take any chances, because for all we know, they could show up at any time."

"Yes." Alexander agreed. "But at the same time, the lack of sleep can cloud your better judgement. And if the enemy were to arrive, it would take time for them to reach us, which I think would be long enough for you to get some rest. And when they do arrive, I could simply wake you up. And I'm sure even ajust an hour of sleep would be enough for you. Also, the Shanxi defense fleet is-"

Just before Alexander could continue, the alarms went off. "Admiral! They're here! They're Here!" Hackett heard on of the technicians call out.

Hackett grabbed his coffee mug, and finished what was left of the coffee inside, really waking him up. "Sorry, Alexander. But it looks like sleep is going to have to wait." Hackett said as he threw the mug away.

"Talk to me, what are our odds?" He asked.

"I'm not sure, sir. They out number us three to one, but their ships appear to be different than ours." The technician replied.

"How different?" Hackett asked.

"W-well, sir. Eighteen of their ships appear to be frigates. Fourteen ships appear to be cruisers, and then there's one ship that's slightly bigger than our battleship." The technician answered.

Hackett looked at the holographic map in front of him, showing his fleet and the enemy fleet. His fleet contained only eleven ships, hardly enough to protect a colony, which was made up of four corvettes, three frigates, two destroyers, a cruiser, and a battleship. The Corvettes were the smallest ships in the fleet, measuring at sixty two meters. The Frigates were bigger than the Corvettes, measuring at one hundred thirdy seven meters. The Destroyers were medium sized vessels measuring at three hundred forty eight meters. Their single Cruiser was measuring at seven hundred twenty nine meters. And finally there was their battleship, which was roughly nine hundred seventy eight meters.

It didn't really surprise Hackett that the aliens would attack with such a large force, since two Alliance ships were able to push back five of their own ships. However, this wasn't the time to start thinking about logistics, the alien ships were closing in, and they were getting closer to firing range. "How much longer until they are within range of our photonic cannons?" Hackett asked.

"Thirty seconds, sir." The technician answered.

"Sir, the enemy ships are launching dropships down towards the planet!" Another technician called out.

Hackett looked at the holomap, and sure enough, the enemy was deploying dropships. If they had a carrier, they would have been able to intercept the dropships by now with fighter craft. "Alexander, get me online with General Williams." Hackett ordered.

"Yes Admiral." Alexander replied.

* * *

Down on the surface, General Williams had just woken up from the alarm. He hastily put on his combat armor, and then made his way to the command center. Once there, he saw that the whole room was abuzz in activity, as technicians were scrambling aroud, trying to figure out what was happening. One of them noticed Williams stepping in. The young man gave the general a salute. "Sir! Glad to see that you could make it." The technician said.

"At ease ensign." William responded. "What's going on here?"

"Sir, the alien fleet has just arrived, and is currently engaging the defense fleet in orbit." The ensign replied.

Williams looked at the holomap. He did not like what he saw. The fleet in orbit was outnumbered three to one. "Sir! Rear Admiral Steven Hackett is on the line!" Another technician called out.

Williams rushed himself over to the commications screen. Once there, he pressed a button, and an image of Steven Hackett popped up. "Talk to me, Admiral." Williams stated.

_"General, the alien fleet is deploying dropships. And based by our calculations, they'll be landing near the colony, within ten minutes."_ Hackett replied.

Williams looked back at the holomap, and saw the dropships flying around the defense fleet, and down towards the planet. Williams then turned around to face Hackett again. "How long do you think you'll be able to hold out?" He asked.

_"We don't know, General. We're clearly outnumbered up here."_ Hackett answered. _"How long until the Alliance fleet arrives?"_ Hackett asked.

Williams activated his omni-tool, and looked back at the message that Alliance command had sent him. "About twenty four hours Admiral. Do you think you'll be able to hold out until then?" He asked.

_"Maybe. But I'm not holding my breath up here."_ Hackett replied.

Williams groaned in response. He really didn't like his odds here. If anything, he was probaly going to have to surrender. But he was really hoping that he wouldn't have to, as he felt that it wouldn't look good on his record, nor would it look good for his family. Regardless, the lives of the entire colony rests on his shoulders, and he was going to have to make hard decisions. "We'll see what we can do done here, but we need to do whatever we can to hold this colony until the Alliance arrives." Williams spoke.

Hackett nodded in response. _"I'll do what I can up here, General. Hopefully, the both of us will still be alive once this over."_ He spoke.

"I hope so too, Admiral. Williams out." Williams finished.

With that, the screen closed, and Williams returned to the holomap. "What's the status on the Thor's Hammer?" He asked one of the technicians.

"Uh... last I heard, it should be ready within less than a few hours." One of the technicians answered.

Williams smiled. "Good. Have the crews prepare for firing once its ready." He spoke.

However, one of the technicians stuttered. "S-sir, with all due respect-"

"I don't want to hear anything about, 'it hasn't been tested yet'. Because frankly, I think now would be a perfect time to test it." Williams interrupted.

The technician backed up. "U-understood sir." He saluted.

* * *

Outside of the colony, along the plains, a single hovercraft glided across the plains.

On it was a male negro human, a white bulky synthetic, and a female caucasian neumen. The human was driving, the synthetic was manning the photonic chain gun, and the neumen was the passenger. The human would continiuosly looked up at the sky for any of the invaders. The wait was very antagonizing. "Sargent Jonston, please refrain from looking up at the sky while drving." The synthetic spoke.

Jonston groaned in response. "Bucky, we got word that an alien fleet will be arriving soon. I simply don't want to take any chances on the off chance that we get caught off gaurd."

Bucky shook its head. "In case you have forgotten, I'm the one whose on the gun." The synthetic replied. "If they catch us, I can just shoot them."

"Uh, guys?" The neumen female, Isabella called out.

"Tsk. Yeah, but who says they won't target me first?" Jonston argued.

"Guys?"

"Then I can just blast them to bits, no problem."

"Guys?"

"But what if you miss? Then what?"

"Guys?"

"You know as well as I do, that that is highly-"

"GUYS!"

"What?!" Jonston and Bucky asked at the same time to Isabella.

The purple haired meumen pointed up into the sky. "They're here." She said nonchalantly.

Jonston and Bucky then looked up at the sky, and saw the alien dropships descend upon the colony. "Lock and Load!" Jonston called out!

Bucky readied the chain gun, while Isabella pulled out a photonic cannon, and Jonston drove towards the dropships. One of the dropships noticed them, and turned to intercept them. Isabella aimed her photonic cannon at the dropship, while holding onto the fire button waiting for it to charge, while Bucky aimed the chain gun at the dropship, and opened fire. Photonic bolts flew out of the chain gun, and impacted the dropship. The barriers on the dropship doing nothing to protect against the Phontonic Bolts. The Dropship then swerved to the right to avoid getting hit, but Isabella tracked it tragetory, and at that moment, her Photonic cannon finished charging, and fired at the alien dropship. The blast had practically trashed the dropship's left wing, causing it to spin out of control, and crash just twenty meters from where they were. "Nice shooting!" Jonston called out.

"We're not out of the woods just yet, Sargent." Bucky stated.

Enough though the dropship crashed, some of the alien passengers survived, and were crawling out the wreckage. One of them saw the hovercraft, and pulled out what looked like a missile launcher. Bucky turned the chain gun to fire at the alien, but before he could fire, the alien had already fired his missile, forcing Bucky to aim for the missile instead of the launcher. Bucky shot at the incoming missile for thirty seconds before finally hitting it, when it was just a few meters away from them. Jonston meanwhile, pulled out his assault rifle, aimed at the aliens and fired. He had to aim carefully, while simultaniously drving the hovercraft with just one hand. One of his burst shots managed to hit one of the aliens in the head, killing it.

However, Jonston noticed that although the photonic bolts from his assault were completely bypassing their barriers, they were not doing significant damage to their armor. If he had to guess, he'd probaly say that the photonic bolts were only doing moderately light damage to them. Bucky's chain gun, however, was ripping them to shreds, probaly because it was of a higher calibur than Jonston's assault rifle. After making their first round against the alien survivors, Isabella had finished reloading a power cell into the photonic cannon. Isabella then turned to her right, so that when Jonston would turn around, she would be facing the aliens. Isabella had began charging the cannon while Jonston turned around for another go against them. Bucky provided cover fire while Isabella charged the photonic cannon. Once they were half down with their round, the cannon was finished charging, and fired at the remaining five aliens. The blast landed in the ground in between them all, killing four of them, but sent one of them flying forward.

The remaining alien struggled to lift himself up off of the ground, but before he did, Jonston had rammed the hovercraft over him. "Hell yeah!" He shouted.

Bucky snarled at him, while Isabella sent him a death glare. "Sargent Jonston! *Running over enemy infantry is a violation of military protocol!" Bucky snapped.

"Bah, so what? It was an alien. And the Geneva Convention doesn't count aliens." Jonston replied.

Before either Bucky or Isabella could respond, the radio chirped.

"_We need back up, we need back up! We're being pinned down at the market store located along Fifth Avenue! Enemy air units-_"

The radio went dead before it could finish. "Fifth Avenue is right near us. We'll talk about military protocol later." Jonston said.

Neither Bucky nor Isabella said a word as Jonston drove towards the Avenue which was a hundred meters from where they were.

* * *

Back up in orbit, a corvette had just 'dropped off' a photonic bomb on an enemy frigate, destroying it.

Hannah Shepard could only let out a sigh, as she watched the explosion from outside the corvette's bridge. She really had wished that this war never happened. It wasn't known why the aliens attacked without warning or without reason, but it didn't matter now, these aliens clearly had hostile intentions, and were clearly determined to occupy the colony. "That's frigate number three down!" The corvette's captain called out.

The corvettes were the most maneuverable ships that the Alliance had, and their maneuverability was enabling them to avoid getting hit. Some people liked to refer to them as 'Space Bombers' since that was how the corvettes were even able to do anything was by 'bombing' enemy ships. So far, the corvette that Hannah was on hadn't of taken any damage. Pretty soon, an enemy frigate was trying to trail them. Hannah lifted the controls 'up', making the corvette 'ascend'. Space was three dimensional, and had a way of messing with people's perception of up and down, right and left. The enemy frigate attempted to give chase, but overshot, as the corvette made a complete three hundred and sixty loop, with the corvette now behind the enemy frigate. "Fire!" The captain called out.

Along the wings of the corvette, several bolts of energy flew towards the enemy frigate, and impacted it. The bolts bypassed the frigate's barriers, and damaged the frigate's engines, leaving it dead in the water. Another corvette 'flew' by and 'dropped' a photonic bomb on it, destroying the frigate. However, a piece of shrapnal flew towards Hannah's corvette, barely grazing it. "Hey, Captain Idiot! You nearly hit us with shrapnal!" She heard her captain called out on the radio to the other corvette.

"_Well, sor-ry! I didn't even see you, you jerk!_" The other captain called out.

Hannah could only groan in reponse. "Maybe you should focus on checking your targets before-"

Before the captain could finish, an explosion rocked the corvette, causing Hannah to lerch forward, nearly hitting her console. When she looked at her console, she could see that the left engine was destroyed, as it was flashing red. "Report!" The captain painfully called out.

"Starboard engine has been destroyed sir! Main power core is off line!" Hannah answered.

Hannah could tell that there was no way to save the corvette. "All hands, abandon ship! Repeat abandon ship!" the captain called out.

Hannah wasted no time in getting out of her seat, and running towards the escape pods. Once she was there, she watched as the other crewmen loaded themselve into the escape pods. She then reached for the holographic interface along one of the pods, opening it. Hannah turned around to see if there were any others headed for the escape pods, but saw no-one. It took her moments to realize that she was the only one left, so she stepped into the pod, and buckled herself in. She felt a jolt as the pod closed the door, and flew away from the corvette. Hannah looked outside the window to see other escape pods flying through space away from the corvette. She took one last glance at the corvette as it was obliterated by an enemy cruiser. She looked away, as she felt like she had just lost her home.

Hannah then activated her omni-tool, and brought up a picture of her two children, John and Jane Shepard. Jane was just start to grow red hair, while John was barely growing any hair. "I'll see you soon my children."

With that she deactivated her omni-tool, and took another look outside, watching the Pearl Harbor continiously fire its SPCs (Super Photonic Cannons) at an enemy cruiser that had just exploded.

* * *

**A/N: *The reason why I put a star there, is because I want to ask: is there something in real life that prohibits military personal from running over enemy infantry with a vehicle?**


	3. The Enemy

**Whoo. Three chapters in one go huh? Like I said, I want to get as much out of this as I can before I go on brake.**

**Anyway, on with the show.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

* * *

This wasn't going totally as planned.

The aliens were putting up a better fight than he had anticipated. Dekol was looking over the reports that he was getting from all over the colony. Within not even three hours, he had already lost thirdy percent of his ground forces. Fortunately, his people had already set up a foothold just about two kilometers from what he assumed was the main colony. He planned to use this foot hold as a command center for his forces across the area. He had hoped that he would be able to take control of the colony within ten hours, but already things weren't going as he had hoped. He lost a whole lot more than he was expecting within just a short amount of time. Dekol quickly shook those thoughts out of his head as he approached one of the technicians. "Get me online with the Pride of Kar'shan. We may need to call in for more reinforcements ahead of schedule." He ordered.

The technician saluted. "Yes sir."

Dekol walked up to the screen when an image of Kabel popped up. "_General?_" He asked.

"Captain, I want you to tell the ships that I'm ordering to launch the second wave of dropships."Dekol stated.

"_With all due respect sir, only two and a half hours has past and-_"

"I've already lost about a third of my ground forces. These newcomers appear to be stronger than I had anticipated." Dekol interrupted. "I want you to order the next wave to come in ahead of schedule."

Kabel groaned. "_Very well then, sir. I'll have the fleet send in the next wave._"

"Good, hopefully we'll have the colony occupied upon schedule. Dekol out." And with that, the transmission ended.

Dekol than walked over to the holomap, which showed a map of the area they were located in. "What's the status of our remaining ground forces?" He asked.

The technician expanded the city which was nearby, and many smaller holographic images appeared, with the blue ones being his own forces, and the red ones being the newcomers. "So far, we've only been able to take at least one sixth of the city." As the technician spoke several buildings had turned blue, which indicated that they were currently occupied by freindly forces.

"However, based on our reports, not only are the aliens putting up a better fight than we had anticipated, but we've also been getting in strange reports." The technicain stated.

Dekol looked at him with curiousity. "What kind of strange reports?" he asked. The technician froze for a moment. "W-well, sir." He paused. "There have been repeated sightings of synthetics all across the city."

That peaked Dekol's curiousity. "Synthetics?" He asked. "They use synthetics?"

The technican weakly nodded. "Yes sir. They do indeed use synthetics."

* * *

As he spoke, the holographic map dissapated, and a screen like image popped up, showing many batarians fighting against the newcomers. The first few seconds had the batarians gaining the upper hand against the outnumbered newcomers, when all of the sudden, three images crash inbetween the batarians and the newcomers. Their crashes causes a dust cloud to pick up. When the dust clears, the batarians see that the figures were three synthetics, with the middle one being bulky, with red, blue, and black all over it, the left one being more slender, with it being painting pink and green, and the right one being in between slender and bulky, with orange and black painted over it. The batarians scream at the sight of them, and open fire. However, the center synthetic held its arms out, and a sheild of some kind materialized in front of them, completely blocking the mass accelerator rounds being shot at them.

The batarians didn't notice that the right synthetic had pulled out what looked like a man portable cannon, aimed at them and fired seconds later, after it had seemingly charged up. The blast from the cannon had sent the atarians flying, while the screen had become covered in dust. When the dust cleared, the video showed the pink synthetic charging at the batarians, weilding some kind of energy blades along its wrists. One had tried to block the blade with his rifle, but the rifle was cut in half, and the unfortunate soldier had his head cut clean off. Two others tried to shoot at it, but the synthetic charged at them, and cut them down in half from their shoulders to their waists. The video ended when the synthetic charged at the camera.

* * *

Dekol had watched the whole thing in horror. "There's no way in hell that could have been remote controlled." He studdered. "The moves were too fluid."

"We've been getting videos like that for the past half hour or so sir. But that's not the only strange thing that we've been seeing." The technician spoke up.

Dekol turned to face him. "What else have you been getting?" He asked.

The technician paused for a moment. "We've... Been getting reports that these newcomers appear to possess some... strange powers." The technician hesitantly said.

Dekol scowled. "What kind of 'strange powers' are we talking about?" The general asked.

The young batarian jerked, and quickly pressed a few buttons on the map. "You're gonna have to see it to believe it sir."

* * *

The screen then opened up again, this time, it showed several batarians walk along a roadside, looking out for enemies. Then all of the sudden, a fireball comes flying at them, hits one of them, explodes, and scattered his body parts. The other batarians turned to face the direction of where the fireball came from and opened fire. The camera zooms in on where the shot was fired, and two newcomer aliens emerge out of cover, one firing at them with a gun, the other shooting a lightning bolt at them with its fingers. The camera zooms out, showing that the lightning bolt hit one of the batarians, and jumped at three others nearby, killing all four of them. The remaining batarian, who had his camera active, began running away from the aliens, only to get impaled by what looked like a spike made out of rock shooting out of the ground. The camera then went dead.

* * *

Although the fear wasn't as great as when he saw the previous video, the current one had still sent shivers down Dekol's spine. "Shit." He muttered. " I don't believe this. Synthtics and... magic?"

"Sir?"

"I need to be alone!" He shouted.

Dekol then stormed out of the prefabricated command center, and walked up onto one of the prefabricated AA towers, looking out into the city. '_Just what in the hell are we fighting against?_' He thought to himself.

Seconds after that thought invaded his mind, Dekol felt a presense near him. "I would rather be alone at this time, Sauros." Dekol said without looking.

"I... I overheard everything in the command center, brother." Sauros said from behind. "Is it true that these newcomers use synthetics?"

Dekol turned around facing his brother with his arms crossed. "Unfortunately, yes brother." He said as he looked back at the city. "I don't know what I've gotten my people into, but it would seem that these newcomers are a greater threat than I had summarized."

Sauros frowned. "If they are as big as a threat as you think they are, than perhaps maybe we should call in for more ships?" He asked. "Maybe we should get the Council-"

Dekol skowled at his brother before he could finish. "We will not get the Council involved in this!" He shouted. "High command clearly said, that they wanted this species subjegated as soon as possible, without-"

"General! General!" An ensign called out on the radio.

Dekol groaned to himself, and held up his omni-tool. "What is it ensign?" He asked.

"We're picking up a massive energy build up about five kilometers west from the city!" The ensign answered.

Dekol raised a set of brows. "What are you taking about? The city is right near a lake. How can there-"

"Brother! Look!" Sauros called out, pointing towards the lake.

Dekol turned around, to see something really strange. There was a blinding blue light that growing brighter, and brighter from somewhere in the lake. Seconds later, the light began to flash, and then a saphire blue beam of light shot upward to the sky. Towards the fleet! "What the f***?" Desolas whispered.

* * *

A mass accellerator round tore through one of the enemy vessels that was smaller than a cruiser, but bigger than a frigate.

There were two of those ships when the attack began, but now, there was only one. "The enemy vessel has been destroyed sir." One of the technicians called out.

This wasn't the time for celebration and Kabel knew that. These newcomers were proving to be far more trouble than what they were worth. Already nine of his own ships were destroyed by the newcomer's ships, while they only lost three of their own ships, one being one of those ships that was smaller than a frigate, a frigate, and that other vessel that was smaller than their cruiser, but bigger than their frigates. It was clear to him that these newcomers were rather unorthadox, for their ships were not equipt with spinal mounted cannons. Rather, their cannons lined up along the hulls of their ships. But that wasn't the only thing about these newcomers that made them unorthadox, for their cannons were not mass accellerator cannons, but were instead energy cannons. These cannons were completely bypassing their sheilds, but were doing only moderately light damage to the fleet's armor. But the shear number of them, and their rate of fire had made their cannons devastating. "Captain! We're picking up a massive power surge coming from the surface!" Another one of the technicians called out.

Kabel looked towards the technician. "What kind of energy surge, ensign?" He asked.

The ensign didn't answer. He just kept on typing at his console. "Ensign! What kind of energy surge are we talking about?" Kabel asked again.

The ensign just shook his head. "That-that can't be right!" the young batarian called out. "If my readings are correct, then its-"

Before he could finish, a saphire blue beam of light had shot upward from the surface, and ripped through two of the cruisers, along with one of the frigates, cutting them in half. Kabel, along with the rest of the crew in the bridge could only stare in horror. Seconds later, the beam dissapated, and the three ships that it cut through exploded. Kabel than pressed a button on his console, and an image of Dekol popped up. "General?"

"_I saw it, captain._" Dekol spoke before Kabel could say anything. "_These newcomers have some kind energy weapon down here on the surface._"

"That beam cut through three of our ships, General." Kabel replied. "Two of our remaining cruisers, and one of our frigates was caught in the blast!"

Dekol looked in another direction, than back at Kabel. "_How many ships do we have left up there?_" he asked.

"Nineteen, sir. The enemy fleet destroyed five of our frigates, and four of our cruisers, before that beam shot at us." Kabel responded.

Dekol cursed. "_We need to do something about that energy weapon if we are to occupy this planet._" He stated.

Kabel placed his hands on his console. "Sir! I mean no disrespect, but these newcomers are clearly more powerful than we had anticipated. We may need to-"

"_I will not authorize a retreat, until_ I _am certain that we can't handle this!_" Dekol interrupted, causing Kabel to jolt.

"_Did you order the second wave of dropships, Kabel?_" Dekol asked.

Kabel weakly nodded. "Yes, sir. They left about five minutes ago." He answered.

Dekol smiled. "_Good. We'll need them in order to secure this planet. Until then, do whatever it takes to disable the enemy fleet._" He said. "_Dekol out._"

And with that, the comm link went dead. Kabel balled his hand into a fist, and punched his console. He was completely unsure if he could disable the newcomer's fleet, as they were simply taking a lot of punishment. They had taken blows that would have destroyed most ships in the Citadel Council, and their sheilds were clearly more powerful than kinetic barrier. Regardless, Kabel figured that he might as well do what he could do at the time.

* * *

They say that seeing is believeing.

Or rather, that's how it was supposed to go. In his many years in the STG, he thought he had seen everything. But this was pushing his disbeleif. He had watched while the Hegemony fleet had taken on a fleet that was three times smaller than it, yet it had already lost nearly half of its ships, while the newcomers had only lost a third of their own. The one thing that surprised him the most was that saphire blue laser beam that shot from the surface. It was clear that these newcomers didn't mess around. Still he figured that these newcomers would be problamatic. He knew for certain that the Council was going to find this really hard to believe.

He was able to hack into the newcomers radios, and listened carefully enough to hopefully get a translation in salarian. But this was difficult, as their languague was completely new to him. At the moment, the only thing he was able to figure out about the newcomers was that they were made up of not one, but three races. One race called itself; 'humans'. Another one called itself 'neumen'. And then there was the third race, that was called; 'halfs'. He was also able to get into their security systems and took pictures of them with their own security cameras, giving him a basic image of their anatomy. Judging by their body structure, he figured that the halfs were hybrids between the humans and the neumen.

The three races didn't have much that disstinguished themselves amongst each other, as they all almost looked the same. The only real difference between them was that the humans were bulky, and had rounded ears, while the neumen were slender, and had pointed ears, while the halfs, were in between the humans and the neumen, in terms of body structure and ear shapes. But the thing that surprised him the most about these three species was the fact that they all looked like the asari, only they were dual gendered rather than mono gendered. He figured that the Council would practically have a field day with this.

Of course, then there was the issue with the synthetics. According to what he learned so far, the newcomers had labeled the synthetics as citizens among their people. But that wasn't the only thing that worried him. He also learned that these newcomers had found a way to implant their own people with A.I.s without the A.I. overwriting the organic brain. These 'symbionts' were also labelled as citizens among their people. This troubled him greatly, as these were both illegal in Citadel Space. Actually, the synthetics alone were a violation of Council law, but implanting an organic brain with an A.I.? That was stretching everything he was beleiving.

But of course, there was also the so-called 'magic', that the newcomers possessed. That is what broke his suspension of disbeleif. The videos of the newcomers manipulating the elements was very difficult for him to believe, and he knew for certain that the Council wasn't going to believe this. According to what he learned so far, the neumen, and the halfs were able to use 'magic' naturally, while the humans had to use other means in order to use magic. But what that was, he did not know. Still he felt like he had spent too much time here, and he needed to report back to Citadel Space to report his findings.

The Council sure wasn't going to be happy that the batarians were waging an illegal war with a new species. But given that this, 'Alliance' legallized the use of AIs, he wasn't sure whose side the Council was going to take. But if the Alliance could make its case, chances were the Council would side with them, since the batarians had fired first. And the Council more than likely didn't want to get involved in a war that one of its client races was waging.

Feeling that he had seen enough, he turned his scout ship around, and made his way towards the mass relay, back into Citadel Space.


	4. Divide and Conquer

***Whistles* Wow. Four chapters in one go? **

**I had said that I wanted to get as much out of this as I could before I went on break. **

**Anywho, on with the show, again. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

* * *

From near the city; Bucky, Isabella, and Jonston all saw the blue phaser fire from the lake.

It was an amazing site, but at the same time, it was also a horrifying site, as they knew what the phaser's purpose was. But that didn't stop them from doing their duty. And their current duty was to find freindlies that were pindowned nearby. Soon the trio came across what they were looking for: a market being surrounded by aliens, with a few enemy gunships providing support.

Isabella wasted no time in charging her photonic cannon. She aimed for the center one, waited a few seconds for the cannon to charge, and fired. The blast hit home, as the gunship was shot out of the sky, and crashed on top of a group of aliens that were taking cover behind several overturned vehicles. The other two gunships took notice, and turned around to face the oncoming hovercraft. Jonston swerved left and right to avoid getting hit by the gunships' gunfire, while Bucky aimed his photonic chain gun at the left one, and fired. The bolts tore off its left wing, causing it to spin out of control, and crash into the right one, causing both gunships to fall on top of another group of aliens, who were trying to run away, killing most of them.

Jonston then turned around, with his hovercraft facing them. He smiled, as he sped up to ram them. Most of the aliens jumped out of the way, only to get shredded by Bucky's chain gun, while a few weren't able to get out of the way in time, and were run over by the hovercraft. The ramming force is what killed them, rather than getting squished underneath the hovercraft. Isabella and Bucky still dissaproved of Jonston's action, but decided to ignore it. After that, Jonston turned to the left, and came to a stop in front of the market. Several marines walked out of the damaged building, and gave the corporal a salute. "Corporal Cameron F. Decker, sir! Glad to see you could make it!" The lead marine, Cameron, said.

Jonston returned the salute. "Sargent Jonston D. Lucas! Good to see you boys still alive and well." He said.

"What's the situation?" Jonston then asked.

Cameron turned around and pointed at the supermarket. "We originally had nearly thirdy men in our unit, but we were reduced to nearly half when the attack began! We've got wounded still inside! We're using what medical supplies we have, as well as what we could spare from the market!" He stated. "They were about to get overrun, when you guys showed up!"

"Damn right!" Jonston said.

He then pressed his fingers into his radio. "This is Sargent Jonston to any dropships in the area! I've got wounded inside a market store that need evac!" He shouted.

The radio chirped. "_Sargent this is Archangel responding. Please verify your location, so that we may extract the wounded._" Came the answer.

Jonston looked around. "Fifth Avenue, just along side Worth Road, in a damaged Seven Eleven!" He ansewred.

There was another chirp. "_Roger that, Sargent, we're on our way. ETA: 15 Minutes._"

* * *

To watch that saphire blue light go was an amazing sight to behold.

Yet, for some reason, a part of her was wishing that they shouldn't have had to resort to using it. Regardless, they were fighting a war against an unknown enemy. Actually, they did learn about who the enemy was, as they were called the Batarians. At least that's what the AIs said that's what they were called, when they hacked into the enemy fleet. According to what the AIs were able to learn from the 'Codex', as it was called, the Batarians were a race in which slavery was a part of their culture. The thought that a race would have slavery be part of their culture had filled her with disgust. She was hoping that once these mongrals were pushed out of Shanxi, that the Alliance would take the fight to them, and force change upon them, as slavery had been banned in the Alliance since its beginnings.

According to what she was hearing, the fleet up in orbit was dealing major damage to the batarian fleet, having already destroyed nearly half of their fleet. And when the Thor's Hammer fired, three more batarian ships were out of the picture. However, the battle hadn't been without casualties, as three of their own ships were lost. Still, they were fighting the good fight, and within less than fifteen hours from now, reinforcements would arrive and-

"Lady Nagase! We have dropships incoming!"

And now she needed to focus on the present. "Which direction, ensign?" Nagase asked.

"They're coming from the southwest, my lady!" The ensign answered. "I count about a dozen and a half dropships, and about two dozen gunships!"

Nagase looked out from the window, and saw the sillouttes of the alien dropships in the distance. The female neumen cursed, and walked back over to her console. "All hands, we have incoming! I repeat, all hands we have incoming! Everyone to battlestations!" She called out.

All across the surface ship, the crews were rushing out to get to their turrets, and stations along the ship.

* * *

"_We have eyes on the target. ETA, 5 minutes._" The Pilot called out.

Sauros examined his rifle one last time as the other batarians locked and loaded. He was eager to get into the action as soon as he could, as he simply did not want to dissapoint his older brother. And if he did, he would bring shame to him and his family. His family was renowned across Batarian space, for their efficient, yet ruthless military tactics. And soon, he was going to destroy-

The dropship shook violently just before he could finish his thoughts.

"Mayday, mayday! We're under attack from heavy anti-aircraft fire!"

Sauros desperately held on to the railling on the roof, as the dropship shook again. He struggled to get up to the cockpit as he held onto it desperately. Seconds later, he was inside the cockpit, as the dropship made a hard left turn. "What the hell is firing at us, lieutenant?" He asked the pilot.

The pilot pointed outside the window. "That!" He shouted.

Sauros looked out, and saw something that was beyond disbeleif. A surface ship with guns ablazing was shooting at them, with cannon fire, double A and triple A fire, and what he assumed was flak. If it could really be called 'flak' as it looked more like balls of energy exploding when they would reach a certain altitude. "You've got to be f***ing kidding me?" He asked. "A surface ship?"

"Yes sir! That's excatly what's firing at us!"

Sauros stared down at the surface ship in complete disbeleif. Just why in the hell would a space faring species use a surface ship? It made no sence. He watched as dropship after dropship fell to the surface ship's anti aircraft fire. Shaking his head, he reached for his radio. "Dekol, its Sauros! We have a problem!" He shouted.

A moment later, the radio buzzed. "_What the devil is going on, brother?"_ Dekol asked.

"The enemy has a surface ship protecting the laser cannon!" Sauros answered.

There was a pause before Dekol replied. "_Is this some kind of joke!?_" He shouted.

Sauros winced at his brother's shouting. "I'm being serious here, brother!" He then pressed some buttons on the console inbetween the pilot and co-pilot. "I'm sending you the dropship's live video footage now."

* * *

He had no idea what to believe now.

The video that his brother was sending him, was clearly showing a surface ship protecting the newcomers' laser cannon. "First synthetics, than magic, then that laser, and now a surface ship?" he whispered. "This just keeps getting better and better." He added sarcastically.

"_Brother! We are hopelessly outgunned here! We can't find a way around the surface ship!_" Sauros called out over the radio.

"Fall back, and regroup! I'll try to get the dreadnought to support you!" Dekol answered, shouting.

_"Acknowledge! Sauros out!"_ His brother replied.

Dekol then pressed various buttons on the console to contact the Pride of Kar-shan, and an image of the Captain popped up. "_Yes, general?_" Kabel asked.

"Kabel, I'm about to send you a video that was recorded a few minutes ago." Dekol said.

As he spoke, he pressed more buttons on the console, and the video that his brother sent him was sent up to the Pride of Kar-shan. When the video popped up next to Kabel, the captain stared at it in disbeleif. "_They have a surface ship? And its protecting their laser cannon?_" Kabel asked.

Dekol angrily nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. And my dropships can't get close to that cannon because of it." He answered. "I want you to try to get one of our ships close enough to the planet, so that you can bombard that ship." Dekol ordered.

"_Sir, what about-_"

"I want that cannon intact!" Dekol interrupted.

Kabel went white. "_WHAAAAT!?_" He shouted. "_Sir, that thing obliterated-_"

"I know what that thing did to the fleet, Captain!" The general furiously shouted, before the captain could finish. "But, if we could get our hands on that cannon, and take it back to Batarian space, just think of the possibilities." He grinned. "This could be the very thing we need to put the Council in its place."

Kabel's face was a combination of scrutiny and fear. "_What makes you so sure that the Council will bow before us, just because we have a massive energy cannon?_" He questioned.

Dekol frowned, and shook his head. "What I'm saying is, that I want to capture that cannon, take it back to Batarian space, and have it reverse engineered, so that we could build more of it." The general smiled. "And once we have a fleet's worth, we will finally be able to make the Council bow before us."

Kabel shook his head. "_If you can't secure the surface, than your words aren't worth shit!_" He yelled.

Dekol scowled at him. "You dare question my authority?" He snarled.

"_According to the reports I'm getting; you've barely been able to occupy just a sixth of the main colony!_" Kabel responded. "_In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if this was even worth it, because we have now just lost a total of sixfteen ships up here!_" The captain screamed. "_While, the newcomers still have just seven ships now! We need to-_"

"Have, one, of, our ships, get into near orbit, and destroy that surface ship!" Dekol sneered, ignoring Kabel's rant.

"_Gen-_"

"NOW!" Dekol screamed. "Once this is over, you and I are going to have a long talk. Do I make myself clear?" He snarled.

Kabel remained silent for a few seconds before answering. "_Crystal, sir. I'll see what I can do with the forces I still have._" He asnswered calmly.

Dekol smiled. "Good. Now hurry it up. I want this colony ocupied within the day." He said as he terminated the line.

* * *

Kabel, burried his head into the palm of his hand.

He had no idea if the general was insane or had a big ego. He probaly thought that because his reveared militaristic family, that they were going to win this battle, but Kabel knew better. They're chances of winning this were not great at all, especially considering how many men were lost to the newcomers. Kabel spread his fingers out, only to see another cruiser fall victim to that 'dreadnought'. He sighed. "Order all ships to fall back and regroup!" Be barked.

In no time at all, his orders were relayed to his remaining sixteen ships, which was made up of ten frigates, five cruisers, and the Pride of Kar-shan, their dreadnought. The ships retreated back by many kilometers, falling into formation. Kabel needed a plan. He didn't like the fact that he was ordered to try to get his fleet close to the planet in order to destroy a surface ship, of all things. If it were up to him, he would have tried to destroy that laser cannon. But orders were orders. The enemy fleet contained only seven ships left. It was true that you should never judge a book by its cover, as he learned that the hard way with these newcomers. He looked at the holomap, and tried to think of a way he could get his ships close to the planet.

Then it struck him.

Maybe he could divide the enemy's fire across the flanks. If he were to split his fleet up, and have one half attack from the left, and the other half attack from the right, he might be able to get one of his ships close enough for an orbittable bombardment. Yes, that could work, but it wasn't without risks. "You, ensign!" He called out to one of the technicians.

"Yes sir?" The ensign replied.

"Which of the cruisers has the least amount of damage done to it?" Kabel asked.

"Uh..." The ensign studdered. "The uh... The Grystabon, sir. Its only taken moderate light damage."

Kabel smiled. "Send word out to the fleet. We're going to flank them."

* * *

Hannah grimaced as she pulled herself out of the escape pod.

The ride down to the surface was bumby. Not that she wasn't used to it, she just couldn't get comfortale during the trip, no matter how many times she had done it, even during exorcizes. And now here she was, standing in the park of the main colony, where her pod had conviently landed, even though she had wanted to land somewhere outside the city. Regardless, she needed to regroup with the others, and soon. She reached for her submachine gun, loaded a crystal into it, and looked around for hostiles.

She was cleared for now.

She then dashed towards a nearby rock, hiding right behind it. She looked over the rock looking for hostiles, but didn't see any. All she saw were just smoke pillers rising from the city. Seconds later, she leaped over the rock, and ran towards a set of bushes, hiding in between them. She had to ignore the leaves rustling against her face, as survival took priority.

A moment later, she heard a scream. Hannah looked outside of the bushes, and saw a female symbiont and a male half running from something. She looked further out, and saw eight aliens chasing them. Rather than just sit around and do nothing, Hannah aimed her submachine gun at the aliens, through the bushes, and fired. Her shots managed to hit one in the head, forcing them to stop and hide behind anything they could find. She then looked from the other side of the bushes, and saw that the, or rather what she assumed was, couple was already hiding behind the fountain. The half had his head out just enough for her to see him, but not enough for the aliens to see him. She could tell by the glow of his eyes, that he had used a spell on himself to enhance his vision, allowing him to see her.

She sent out hands gesters telling him to stay put. The half nodded. Hannah then looked back at where the aliens were hiding, and saw that one of them had its head out trying to find her. She aimed her submachine gun at him, but she knew that from this distance she wasn't going to have much luck hitting him. A second later, the alien went back into cover. Hannah could feel her heart getting louder, and faster, with her breath getting heavier. Then, another alien began to creep out of cover, with his gun aimed in her direction. The alien slowly marched towards where Hannah was hiding. Out of impulse, she fired, and the alien fell to the ground riddled with holes.

Immiediately afterwards, the other six aliens moved out of cover, and began firing on Hannah's position. The young woman ducked, flat out on the ground, while the bullets from the alien's guns whizzed through the bushes, and even impacting the tree behind her. Hannah tried to backwards crawl out from the bushes, when all of the sudden, a small grey cloud materialized above the aliens' heads. The aliens looked up mortified, when all of the sudden, bolts of lightning shot from underneath the cloud, and zapped each and every one of the aliens, killing them. Hannah looked to her left, and saw that the half was holding his hand out, and small electrical bolts were jumping around his hand.

Hannah stood up from the bushes, and made her way towards the fountain, while the half and the symbiont both ran towards her. "Thanks for the save ma'am." The half spoke up.

Hannah huffed. "I'm the one who should be thanking you." She stated. "Leiutenant Hannah Shepard." She said offering a handshake.

"James Frank." The half replied shaking Hannah's hand.

"Annabel Frank." The symbiont spoke up.

Hannah then looked at James, then Annabel. "Are you two related?" She asked.

James and Annabel then looked at each other, then back at Hannah. "Not by blood, but by official law, yes." James answered.

Hannah nodded in response. "Annabel, by any chance, can you listen in on our radio frenquencies?" She asked.

Annabel shook her head. "No ma'am, I can't. I haven't gotten a radio installed yet." She answered.

Hannah cursed. Just then, she heard something coming from the west. She then looked in that direction, and saw a human dropship flying towards them. Hannah walked from out of the tree's way, and began waving her hand towards the dropship. The dropship then slowed down, and descended to the ground near them, its compartment opening up, showing marines from each race in the alliance standing in it. Hannah, along with James and Annabel, ran up to the dropship. One of the human marines, along with a neumen and a synthetic, jumped out of the dropship and landed in front of the trio. "Leiutenant Hannah Shepard." Hannah spoke up saluting.

The human saluted back. "Sargent Jonston D. Lucas." He replied. "You three need a lift?"


	5. Space Battle

**Whew, whew, whew. Five chapters in one go.**

**Well, I think its time I was honest. I've been working on this none stop, so that I could get as much of it out before the New Year.**

**Well, since we're now on Chapter Four, let's get this show on the road.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

* * *

"Are you certain that this report is accurate?" Veemus, the salarian councilor asked.

Berlos nodded. "Yes. I was there, councilors. The Hegemony is indeed in a conflict with this 'Alliance', sirs." He answered.

The councilors went back to examing their datapads. "Berlos, I hope you understand, but we're finding this to be hard to believe." Tevos, the asari councilor spoke up.

"I'm with Tevos on this Berlos." Sparatus, the turian councillor replied. "I mean, really? Synthetic citizenship? Organic brains implanted with AIs? Hybrids? Magic? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were probaly just trying to antagonize the Hegemony."

Berlos frowned. "I understand that its hard to believe Sparatus. Trust me, even I find it hard to beleive, and I was there." The STG agent responded.

"And if what you said about this 'Alliance' is true, than we may have a problem on our hands." Veemus stated.

Kerberlos knew what he meant, but nodded anyway. "I understand that, Councilors." He said. "Their fleets are only... Marginally more advance than ours. The Hegemony sent a fleet towards them that has, or rather had, three times as many ships as the defenders of that colony."

"And based on your report, the Hegemony fleet lost nearly half of their fleet?" Tevos asked.

Berlos nodded again. "Yes." he replied.

The councilors all looked at each other, and spoke to each other outside of their microphones. "What do you think?" Tevos asked.

Sparatus lightly shook his head. "To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure." He said. "The thing that concerns me the most is that fact that they use AIs." Sparatus added.

Veemus held his hand up cloes to his chin. "True, but based on Berlos' report, they don't appear to be the same as the geth." He responded.

"Even if they aren't, that doesn't mean that they wouldn't be any less dangerous." Sparatus pointed out.

"Maybe." Tevos said. "But given that the Hegemony fired first, and because we have not been having the best relations with them as of late, I'm not sure if we should interfere." She added.

Sparatus nodded. "I agree. Not doing anything would worsen our already fragile relationship with the Hegemony." He said.

"But given that Hegemony is waging an illegal war with a new species, not doing anything could very well cause a controversy." Veemus brought in.

Tevos looked at her datapad, still trying to figure out what to do. "The batarians may only be a client species in the Citadel Council, but if this gets out of hand, it could very well spread across Citadel Space." The asari stated.

Sparatus and Veemus both nodded in agreement. "Yes. And given that their fleet was able to take on a fleet that was three times its size, I don't see how a war with this 'Alliance' could end well." Sparatus replied.

"Based on Berlos' report, a full scale war with the Alliance could be very bloody." Veemus added.

Tevos then looked at her fellow councillors. "So, then we're all in agreement?" She asked them.

Sparatus and Veemus both nodded. Tevos then looked at Berlos. "Berlos, the Council has come to a decision." She began.

Berlos placed his hands on the railing. "We've decided that this war must come to a close as soon as possible." Tevos stated.

Berlos smiled, it was excactly what he was hoping for. "Bring the batarian ambassador to us. We have much to discuss." Tevos said.

Berlos saluted. "Yes councillors." He said before walking the other way.

Tevos then brought her omni-tool up, pressed a few buttons, and an image of Matriarch Benezia popped up. "Councillor Tevos? To what do I owe this pleasure?" She asked.

"Benezia, a batarian fleet is engaged in an illegal war with several new species pass Relay 314." Tevos answered.

Benezia raised an eyebrow. "And what do you want me to do about it?" The matriarch asked.

Tevos looked at Sparatus, than at Veemus, then back at Benezia. "We want you to put an end to it. And see if this 'Alliance' is willing to negotiate." The councillor replied.

Benezia crossed her arms. "Well, I'm going to need all of the data you have on them, before I take action." She stated.

Tevos nodded. "I understand, Matriarch Benezia. The data will be forwarded to you once your personal ships arrive." She responded.

Benezia responded with a nod. "Thank you. I'll be there in less than a few hours." She said.

"Good luck." Tevos said, before terminating the comm link.

* * *

Hackett stared at the holomap.

The enemy ships were now moving again. But Hackett noticed something. The fleet was breaking off, one half was moving to the left, while the other was moving to the right. But there was something else, the dreadnought was moving to right. That's when Hackett realized what they were doing. The beam from the Thor's Hammer had streaked across the space on the Pearl Harbor's right side when it fired. Judging by their tragectory, it was clear to him that the aliens wanted to destroy it. "Ensign, order the cruiser and our remaining destroyer to get in front of the half that's moving to our right! They're trying to mover their dreadnought in close so that they can target the Thor's Hammer!" The admiral ordered.

"Roger that sir!" the ensign called out.

"Pilot, move us along with the cruiser and the destroyer!" Hackett called out.

"Yes sir!" the pilot agreed.

* * *

The destroyer, the cruiser, and the battleship turned full broadside onto the incoming dreadnought's fleet, and turned their photon cannons towards the ships. The three ships fired their photonic cannons at them, hoping to hit the dreadnought. However, most of the shots missed as the batarian ships maneuvered out of the way, but a few shots were able to hit the dreadnought, but they didn't do much damage. The enemy ships launched disruptor torpedoes at them. They were greeted by the alliance ships' point defenses. While two thirds of the disruptor torpedoes were destroyed, some had slipped pass the defenses and hit the Pearl Harbor, and the cruiser and destroyer head on.

The Pearl Harbor took moderately light damge, while the destroyer suffered a blow to its bow, but the cruiser suffered the worst, as many disruptor torpedoes were able to break its shields, and one hit it directly into its engines. The dreadnought then turned itself so that its spinal mounted cannon was aiming at the cruiser, and fired. The round hit the cruiser at admiships, slamming into its power core, causing the cruiser to explode, and split in half. The three remaining corvettes flew in from behind, dropping their photonic bombs onto one the batarian cruisers. The bombs all hit home, destroying the cruiser. This drew away three of the frigates escorting the dreadnought, forcing them to give chase.

However, the other half that was moving towards the left flank were now in position, and began to fire upon the destroyer and the Pearl Harbor. The Pearl Harbor made a sharp turn, hoping to get the other ships within its firing range. The three cruisers in the other fleet then launched their disruptor torpedoes at the battlship, only to once again be met with point defenses. Meanwhile, the remaining two frigates flew in from another direction, and fired their GUARDIAN lasers at the remaining torpedoes, preventing any of them from hitting the Pearl Harbor. The two frigates than turned in opposite directions, before turning to face the center cruiser, and launched their Hydra Missiles at it.

The Hydra missiles appeared to be just streaks of light, but once they were close enough to the enemy cruiser, they then split into several more streaks, and bombarded the cruiser relentlessly, severely damaging it. Two of their own frigates turned away from their tregetory, and chased the Alliance frigates. Meanwhile, the Pearl Harbor had fired a barrage of photonic blasts at the cruisers. This time, they were close enough so that most of the shots would hit them. One of the cruisers, already having substained considerable damage, was destroyed by the barrage. The remaining two cruisers and two frigates bugged out, and moved to regrouped with the dreadnought's fleet.

Meanwhile, the destroyer was struggling against the dreadnought. The medium vessel was firing away at the giant ship from a distance, but was ultimately doing less damage than the battlship due to its distance from the dreadnought. The dreadnought than fired a mass accelerator round at it, disabling its sheilds. The destroyer made a quick turn to attack the dreadnought head on. It was no use, the nearby cruiser intercepted the destroyer, firing a disruptor torpedo that struck alongside amidships, diabling its weapons. With nothing left to defend itself with, the destroyer was orderd to flee the battlezone.

The Pearl Harbor, meanwhile, returned to its defensive position over the Thor's Hammer, and fired a photonic barrage at the dreadnought. The ship took the barrage head on, and launched another mass accelerator round at the battleship. The round impacted the Pearl Harbor's sheild, but did not disable it. The nearby cruiser than fired another volley of disruptor torpedoes. The Pearl Harbor's point defenses lit up, intercepting the torpedoes, destroying all but one, which impacted the Pearl Harbor's sheilds with serious force. The Pearl Harbor responded with another photonic barrage, this time, aiming for the annoying cruiser, destroying it. The two frigates that escorted the dreadnought flew in, launching their own disruptor torpedoes at the Pearl Harbor.

The battleship's point defenses fired at both the intercepting frigates, and the torpedoes. One of the frigates was ripped to shreds, while the other was forced to bug out, all the while, two of their disruptor torpedoes impacting the battleship's sheilds. The dreadnought fired another round at the Pearl Harbor. This time, the sheild finally gave up, and shattered.

* * *

Inside the bridge, klaxons were going off like there was no tomorrow. "Sir! Sheilds are down! I repeat; sheilds are down!" A techician called out.

"Hackett, we need to get out of here." Alexander said, his avatar materializing.

Hackett looked down at Shanxi, than back at the dreadnought. The admiral then looked at Alexander. "Alexander, can you hack into that ship's systems?" Hackett asked.

Alexander tilted his head. "I could try." He answered, looking at the dreadnought. "I think I could be able to disable its weapons."

Hackett nodded. "Do it." he ordered.

And with that, Alexander's avatar dissipated.

* * *

"Sir, the dreadnought's sheilds are down!" One of the technicians called out.

Kabel smiled. "Destroy it!" He ordered.

The Pride or Kur'shan then lined itself up for a direct hit on the enemy dreadnought. However, just when they were about to fire, something happened. The lights in the bridge began to flicker. The technicians all muttered to each other, trying to figure out what was going on. Then all of the sudden, the ship jolted, causing Kabel to stumble onto his console. The captain quickly regained his conposure. "What the hell happened?" He called out.

"I-I don't know, sir." One of the technicians answered.

"Sir, something is inside our systems!" Another technician called out.

Kabel raised a few brows. "What's inside our systems?" He demanded.

Then without warning, the consoles all across the bridge, went blank. "What is this?" Kabel asked.

Then all of the sudden, the screen went blank, and an image of one of the aliens appeared on all of the consoles. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that as of this moment; your ship is now under my control." The alien said.

Kabel scowled. "Who the hell are you?" He asked.

"S-sir?"

The alien smiled. "I?" The alien then mutated into a plant like monster. "I am a momument of all your sins." the monster spoke in a deep voice.

Kabel backed up. "Wh-what are you?" The captain panicked.

"Sir!"

"I am the harbinger of your destruction." The monster said as it turned into a metallic cetapod.

"SIR!"

"What?" Kabel shouted at the technician.

The technician was visibly shaking. "It... It's..." He couldn't finish.

Kabel then looked back at the image, which now turned itself into a floating head, and then back at the technician. "Its an... AI." The technician finally finished.

Kabel's eyes widened in horror, and fury. He then slammed his hands onto his console. "The council is not going to be happy when they find out about this!" He yelled at the AI.

The head than turned back into its original form. "And what makes you say that?" It asked.

"Because AIs like you are illegal!" Kabel answered, as he pointed his finger at it. "Once they get wind of this, they will join us, and bring your creators to their knees for creating an abomination like you!" The captain added.

The thing than began laughing like a maniac, and changed its avatar into a horned red monster with dagger sharp claws. "Oh, I think not." The thing stated.

"And why not?" Kabel asked.

The thing's avatar than made what looked like a grin. "Becuase you aren't going to live to see it!"

At that moment, the lights went out again, and the image vanished. Then the lights turned themselves back on, and the consoles all returned to normal, while the screen went back to showing the enemy dreadnought. However, the dreadnought shook again, causing Kabel to once again land on his console. "Report?" He shouted.

A technician turned around to face him. "Sir, the main cannon has been disabled!" He answered.

"What? How?" Kabel demanded.

"We've got confirmed reports from all parts of the ship that the main cannon's circuitry has been fried!" Another technican stated.

"Can we get it back online?" The captain asked.

The technicians all looked at each other. "Well?" Kabel asked again.

The technicians then slowly turned to face him an shook their heads. "No... Sir... Everything... connected to the main cannon... has been fried." One of them weakly stated.

Kabel's face went white, and looked at the enemy dreadnough in horror.

* * *

Hackett looked at the holographic projector as Alexander rematerialized. "Admiral, I've disabled their primary weapon." He said.

Hackett smiled. "Thank you, Alexander." He said.

Hackett than turned his attention towards the enemy dreadnought with a far more serious expression. "Fire everything!" He shouted holding his hand out.

"YES SIR!" All of the technicians on the bridges replied with renewed vigor.

* * *

The Pearl Harbor opened up on the enemy dreadnought with everything it had from its point defenses to its super photonic cannons, punching away at the dreadnought. The point defenses were scratching the dreadnought's hull, leaving open wounds for the photonic cannons, from light to super, were punching into these wounds, causing more damage to the dreadnought. Soon, the dreadnought couldn't take any more, and entered full reverse trying to avoid getting hit more by the Pearl Harbor. As the dreadnought limped away from the Pearl Harbor, the remaining two cruisers flew in to provide it with covering fire. The cruisers fired mass accelerator rounds at the Pearl Harbor. Despite losing its sheilds, the Pearl Harbor's hull held on, taking the hits from the cruisers. The Pearl Harbor than turned its attention onto the cruisers, launching a massive barrage at the two ships.

The cruiser on the left was unable to survive the barrage, and was destroyed, while the right cruiser was forced to bug out after its weapons were disabled by the Pearl Harbor. Then, the enemy's remaining seven frigates, flew in again to attack the Pearl Harbor with disruptor torpedoes. Fortunately, the destroy got in between the Pearl Harbor, and the barrage, its sheilds fully recharged. The destroyer's sheilds took the shots, losing two thirds of its strength. The destroyer than lit up its point defenses at the oncoming frigates, its shots destroying one of the frigates, due to being too severely damaged, while the others had to spread out to avoid getting hit. One, didn't stop and continued to charge at the destroyer, intending to ram it. Just before it could hit though, the remaining Shanxi frigate flew in from behind it, launching a Hydra missile at the frigate, destroying its engines, and forcing it to violantly dip, narrowly missing the destroyer.

The Pearl Harbor put the frigate out of its misery by firing a single super photonic blast at it before it fell into the planet's gravity well. At that moment, the Pearl Harbor's sheild had reactivated, but was only at ten percent strength, and were slowly recharging. The frigate then made a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn, facing the now regrouped enemy fleet, and the remaining corvette also regrouped, sitting along side the frigate, while the destroyer remained in front of the Pearl Harbor.

The ships that remained of the alien fleet was the dreadnought, a cruiser, and five frigates, while the Shanxi fleet still had only four of their ships left. The game was now anyone's guess, as the dreadnought and the remaining cruiser had no weapons in which to fire with, while their frigates only had their mass accellerator cannons left to fire with, having expending all of their disruptor torpedoes, while the Shanxi ships were pretty badly damaged.

The answer as to what would happen next would come, when from out of nowhere, four ships of an unknown design suddenly popped up in between the two fleets.


	6. Unexpected Arrival

**I know that many of you are wary with the whole Magic thing, but really, just go with it. This whole thing started out with a plot bunny after all. A Plot bunny that involved adding in elements from Phantasy Star, and other franchises as well. ****Just give me a chance, I know what I'm doing.**

**And besides, this is called 'fan fiction' for a reason.**

**So without any further delays, let's get on with the show.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

* * *

Dekol let himself a sneer as he looked at the reports he was getting.

All of the forces who were meant to take the city were forced to retreat. Even with the reinforcements that he ordered to come down early were unable to push themselves into the city. What was worse, the dropships and gunships that he had sent to try to claim the laser for the Hegemony were on their way back, as they couldn't get past the surface ship. It didn't help that Kabel was unable to get past the enemy fleet in orbit in order to bombard the surface ship in order for the dropships to land and claim the laser. Maybe Kabel was right, maybe he should have ordered him to destroy the laser. But it was too late now, as all of his forces were on their last legs, and were retreating back to base.

With a loud roar, he threw everything that was on the table to the floor, and slammed his fists onto it. Just then a technician walked in. "Sir! An asari fleet has just arrived in orbit!" He stated.

Dekol turned around to look at the technician with a face full of rage. "WHAAAAAAAAAT!?" He screamed.

* * *

Nagase watched as the enemy dropships were running away with their tails in between their legs.

The senior neumen smiled as her men all across the bridge cheered. That wasn't the only good news, she got a report saying that the aliens were driven out of the main colony. Though that was currently the only silver lining at the moment, for she knew for certain that it wasn't over. She was deeply hoping that this wouldn't escalate into a full scale war with a power that they knew nothing about. "My lady?" One of her men called out.

Nagase turned her head to face him. "Yes, ensign?" she asked.

"We just got word from command. Another alien fleet has just arrived in orbit." The young man replied.

Nagase's eyes widened. "Are they freind or foe?" She asked.

* * *

Williams smiled as he read the reports he was getting from all across Shanxi.

All of the aliens that were trying to take the city were pushed out, and were sent back crying to their mommies. His forces had taken moderately light casualties while his technicians estimated that the aliens had suffered heavy casualties. Still, he had a feeling that it wasn't over just yet. If anything, these aliens probaly had a much, much larger forces somewhere out in the galaxy. The problem was finding them, as well as how strong they were. Still, there was a part of Williams that was hoping that this would end sooner rather than later, and would end diplomatly rather than violently. "Sir? General Williams?" One of the techicians called out.

Williams turned around to face him. "What is it, son?" He asked.

The techician hesitated for a moment. "Another alien fleet just arrived in orbit sir." He sputtered. "They appear to be of a different model than what the aliens are using."

Williams walked up to the technician and stared at the screen. "What the hell?" he asked.

* * *

Hackett narrowly jumped from his chair when the unknown ships appeared in between his fleet and the enemy fleet.

* * *

Kabel stared, horrified at the asari vessels that had suddenly appeared in between his fleet and the enemy fleet. "Oh no." He whispered.

Just then, the radio beeped. "S-sir?" One of the technicians called out. "The asari vessels, are hailing us, and the enemy fleet."

* * *

"Sir, the unknown vessels are hailing us, and the enemy fleet." Alexander spoke.

Hackett frowned. Okay, this was unexpected. What was going to happen next? Shaking his head, Hackett turned to Alexander. "Put them on screen." He ordered.

Just then, the screen started showing two aliens, one was of a blue skinned female alien, while the other one was of a four eyed alien that had his hand in his face. "Hello. I am Matriarch Benezia of the Asari Republics." The Blue alien spoke.

The four eyed alien just shook his head before pulling his hand out of his face. "And I am Kabel Lu'Chan of the Batarian Hegemony." He sighed.

Hackett raised an eyebrow. "I assume its your people who we've been fighting against, Kabel?" he asked.

Kabel responded by resting his cheek onto his fist. "Yes, but I'm not the one who started this mess." The captain replied.

Hackett crossed his arms, and turned to Benezia. "And what is your purpose for being here, Benezia?" The admiral asked.

"I was sent here on behalf of the Citadel Council to put an end to this little wargame." Benezia replied.

Hackett leaned forward a bit. "Citadel Council?" He asked.

Kabel crossed his arms. "The Citadel Council is the governing body of the galaxy." He stated. "Or rather what they own of the galaxy anyway."

Benezia turned to face Kabel. "Almost exactly what he said." She then turned to face Hackett. "The Citadel Council got wind of this incident hours ago, when an agent of ours discovered that the Batarians had moved a fleet to this location." She stated.

The blue alien then sent a glare at Kabel's direction. "Illegally, I might add." Benezia lightly snarled.

The four eyed alien backed up and waved his hands around in response. "It wasn't by my choice!" He shouted. "The one who was behind this attack was General Dekol Ju'von!" Kabel added.

Hackett glared at Kabel. "And where is this, General Dekol Ju'von?" The admiral asked.

Kabel fell into his chair and stared at the ceiling. "He's on the planet, in a makeshift feild base just a few kilometers out from the main colony." He stated.

Benezia smirked, and nodded. "Thank you, Kabel, for your cooperation. The Council will like to have a few words with him on the Citadel." She said.

Kabel weakly nodded. "I know, I know. I'll tell him that an emissary from the Council is here. Kabel out." And with that the four eyed alien terminated his comm link.

Hackett than held his hand onto his chin. "So, this Citadel Council? Will they be asking us to send our delegates over to discuss this incident?" He asked Benezia.

Benezia nodded. "Yes, they will. They'll want to here your side of the story, admiral. Though, I should warn you though. The Council can be quite stubborn." She stated.

Hackett nodded. "I can imagine. In the meantime, I'll inform my superiors about what has happened here, Benezia." The admiral said.

Benezia smiled. "That would be for the best Admiral. In the meantime, I have authorization to give you some data on the Citadel Council." She stated.

When she finished speaking, seconds later, Alexander's avatar materialized. "Hackett, I've got the data. Do you wish for me to send it to Alliance Parliment?" he asked.

Hackett turned to face Alexander, and nodded. "Yes. And tell them that we may need to have the reinforcements stand down. As it appears that we might not need that fire support." The admiral replied.

Alexander nodded. "Right away." He said turning to face Benezia. "Sir." And with that, his avatar vaporized.

Benezia had an eyebrow raised. "Who was that?" She asked.

Hackett rested his arm onto his armrest. "That was Alexander. This ship's AI." He responded.

There was a flash of surprise on Benezia's face, before it returned to normal before anyone could notice. "So its true?" She spoke.

This time, Hackett raised an eyebrow. "What's true?" He asked.

Benezia leaned back in her chair. "That you use AIs?" she asked.

Hackett frowned, and leaned forward in his chair. "Yes. We use AIs." He answered. "Why? Is there a problem?" Hackett asked.

Benezia rubbed her forehead. "Unfortunately, yes." She answered. "AIs are illegal in Citadel Space. And seeing as how your people seem to have them legallized, this may cause some issues with the Council."

Hackett looked down at the ground, crossed his arms, and shook his head. "And why, are AIs illegal?" The admiral demanded.

Benezia lightly bit her lower lip, and closed her eyes. "It largely has to do with the beleif that AIs would inveitably turn on their organic masters."

No sooner did the crew of the bridge began laughing their heads off, while Hackett groaned and facepalmed. "AIs, turning on their organic masters is inveitable?"

"Oh, that's rich! Haha, oh that's rich!"

"Your 'Councillors' must of watched some cheap old sci-fi movie, ah ha ha!"

Hackett stared at his men with an unamused expression on his face. "Ooooh, look out ya'll, I think Alexander gonna kill us." And the laughter intisified.

Hackett smacked his forehead, and ran the palm of his hand down his face. A second later, Alexander's avatar appeared on the screen, next to Benezia. Just like Hackett, he too was not amused by their laughter. Alexander shook his head, and an ocarina materialized in his hand. Hackett knew what was coming, so he put some headphones on. Alexander than put his mouth on the ocarina and blew. As he played the ocarina, the crewmen in the bridge became drowsy, and wobbled their heads around. Hackett reached for something bellow his chair and pulled out a magezine. Benezia meanwhile watched with a look on her face that was a mixure of intrigue adn horror. Minutes after Alexander began playing his instrument, the crewmen in the bridge had all but fallen asleep. Hackett lowered his magezine and saw the men out like lights. Benezia stared in absolute shock at the site. Seconds later, Alexander stopped playing, and the ocarina vaporized out of his hands. "I apologize for the crew, miss Benezia, but that was clearly out of line." Alexander stated.

Benezia frowned. "Was that really nessacery?" She asked the AI.

Alexander merely lifted his shoulders. "Eh, sometimes drastic times call for drastic measures." the AI replied.

Benezia shook her head. "The Council is going to love this." She stated.

"Did you contact Alliance Command, Alexander?" Hackett asked.

The AI's avatar dissipated from the screen, and rematerialized next to Hackett. "Yes admiral, I did." He responded. "They've informed the Alliance reinforcements to stand down once they arrive, and the delegates they've sent should be arrving within just a few days."

The admiral smirked and nodded. "Good work, my freind." Hackett said as Alexander's avatar dissipated.

"So, I guess this means that you're willing to negotiate?" Benezia asked.

Hackett turned to face her and nodded. "Yes ma'am." He replied.

A smile came across Benezia's face, and she nodded. "Good. In the meantime, here are the coordinates to the Citadel, the heart of the Citadel Council." She said, as a hologram popped up next to Hackett. "I look forward to seeing you there, admiral."

And with that, the comm link was terminated.

* * *

Hannah stared up at the ceiling.

It felt like just seconds ago, she risked her life to save two others from aliens. Now here she was laying down in a hospitol, having gotten some Aleve for the small aches in her legs from the drop of her escape pod. Though in all seriousness, she wasn't all that releived. "For the last time, put that monkeying business behind us!" She heard Jonston call out.

Hannah could only groan. Jonston and Bucky, his synthetic partner, had been arguing for some time now, over running over an alien with a vehicle. "I will not put that 'monkeying business' behind us, Sargent!" Bucky yelled. "You were in clear violation of protocol for running over an enemy infantry with a vehicle!"

Running over infantry with a vehicle was greatly discouraged by military officers, and it was a violation of protocol. Of course, the argument didn't really matter to Hannah, as she was a ship pilot without a ship. In an effort to try to drown out the argument, she pretented to smother herself with the pillow. It didn't do much. "And I thought I already told you, it was an alien!" Jonston responded to Bucky.

"'It was an alien', 'it was an alien', 'it was an alien'!" Bucky replied. "Is that all you have to defend yourself with?!"

"Oh I'm sure even my superiors would agree with me on that!" Jonston said. "Because-"

"Enough! Both of you!" Hannah heard Isabella but in.

Hannah sat up from the bed, and held the pillow close to her chest. She could tell by the look in Isabella's eyes that she had, had enough. "You two act like kids who are fighting over a stupid video game that they both want, but didn't get!" The neumen called out. "Yes, Jonston was in violation of protocol, and yes, they were aliens! But that doesn't change the fact that we are in a war! So unless you two want to get sniped when they redeploy you two, I suggest you both shut up, and START ACTING LIKE ADULTS!" She screamed.

Jonston and Bucky had backed up, with their arms in a defensive postion. Hannah could tell by the sound of Isabella's voice, that there was only one explaination of how and why she would snap like that. She would know, as she had experienced it before over a year ago. "You know, you don't have to shout like that." The doctor, a symbiont, had said from nearby.

Isabella merely responded by laying back down on the bed. "F*** you." She snarled at the doctor.

Hannah chuckled. "My, my, aren't little hissy aren't we today?" She asked.

Isabella turned to face her with a wicked glare, and a low growl. Hannah wasn't intimitaded in the slightest. "I think you should relax for the time being, miss Isabella." The doctor said. "Also, I don't think I can reccommend you for redeployment."

The neumen looked at him with a scrutinizing glare. "And why not?" She asked.

The doctor merely took a few steps next to her, and handed her over his datapad. At first Isabella looked at it with a raised eyebrow. Then she grabbed the datapad out of his hand, and stared at it, with her mouth agape and her eyes so wide her iris and pupils had shrunk. "Ah... Ah... Uh... Huh?" She stuttered, looking at the doctor. "I... I'm...?"

The doctor awkwardly smiled and nodded. "Yes ma'am. Congratulations, you're pregnant."

Jonston's jaw fell to the floor, Bucky's optics had doubled in size, and both their arms were dangling from their shoulders. Hannah meanwhile, couldn't help but silently giggle. "By the gods, I'm a..." Isabella fell back into her bed. "Well, I guess that could explain why I screamed at you guys." She said to Jonston and Bucky.

Hannah couldn't contain her laughter this time. "Oh don't worry. Its not too bad." She stated. "Besides, I went through what you're going through about over a year ago." She snickered.

Isabella lightly chuckled in response. Jonston meanwhile just looked at her with an unstable smile while Bucky crossed his arms. "We still have the issue with the running over enemy infantry thing, Sargent." Bucky stated.

Jonston's smile turned into a frown, and turned to face Bucky. "I don't think this is the time for that, 'White Trash'." The Sargent Sneered.

"What did you call me?" Bucky snarled.

Jonston grinned evilly. "You heard me." He whispered.

If he had a face, Bucky would be sneering. "Oh, so because I'm painted white, you're going to call me 'White Trash'?" The synthetic snarled.

Jonston crossed his arms. "What does it matter to you? You're a machine." He stated.

Bucky got into Jonston's face. "A machine that has _rights_," Bucky then whispered. "Nigger."

Jonston scowled. "What was that?" He growled.

Bucky crossed his arms, and again, if he had a face, he would be grinning. "You heard me. Since you're going to call me 'White Trash', I think I'll call you 'Nigger'." The synthetic stated.

Jonston replied by picking up the nearby bed and slammed it onto Bucky. Bucky ripped his arms free from the bed and launched a punch at Jonston. The negro dodged the fist, and launched his own punch at Bucky, which the synthetic intercepted, then grabbed Josnton by the collar, spun a complete 180 and threw Jonston towards the other side of the room. Jonston looked up at Bucky with an even worse scowl. "Oh, so you think that because you're a machine that you can beat me in a fight?" He then raised up his fist in a fighting positoin. "Have atch ya brah!"

Bucky brought his own fists up. "Bring it on!"

And from somewhere, a ding-ding was heard, and Jonston and Bucky ran at each other, yelling like gladiators. Behind the curtain, Isabella had burried her face into her palms. Hannah awkwardly chuckled. "Are they always like this?" She asked.

Isabella huffed. "Yeah. You'd think they were a married couple." She stated.

On the other side of the curtain, punches and smacks could be heard. The doctor meanwhile, just smacked his forehead, and shook his head. "Its going to be a long day."

* * *

**I would like to apologize in advance. Because when I finished this chapter; _Six Months ago, _I was just about ready to upload it, when all of the sudden writer's block hit me like a ton of bricks.**

**Anyway, I probably won't be updating this as fast as I had intended, a****nd I'm going to be moving this to the crossover section by the way.**

**Be sure to leave a review.**


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